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Warning: this is a theology nerd joke. We are blessed with pastors at our church, both in quality and abundance. On Sundays there’s often a line-up of three behind whichever pastor is preaching. In other words, there are four of us: Carl, Melinda, Bart, and me. Sometimes, certain members of the line-up get a little [...]
I’m sure what the following says about me. Am I: (a) Hypocritical? (b) Too enmeshed in the culture? (c) (Oh, I hope this is the answer…) someone who lives in the tension? Because tonight, I’m showing my youth group this movie clip: And then, after a little discussion, we’re going to watch Elf.
It’s been a long day. Mostly church related. Not bad. Just long. I am tired, body, soul, spirit, voice and joints and the soles of my feet. So, one quick thought, jumping off from a conversation with a colleague last week: Advent is really supposed to be a season of preparation, pulling back, pulling away [...]
In the middle of all these Advent stories about naming remarkable babies (Jesus and John), here’s a poem that has had me thinking lately about the importance of naming: How badly the world needs words. Don’t be fooled By how green it is, How it seems to be thriving. “Willow” rescues that tree From its [...]
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens: Revelation 3:7 I’ve been to all sites of the 7 churches in Revelation. Eight years [...]
Dinner tonight is a good bellweather of how I’ve been eating lately…good intentions mixed with crap. I made enchiladas from “scratch”: corn tortillas (which I obviously didn’t make myself) wrapped around: locally grown squash that I roasted yesterday in a moment of inspired advanced preparation pulled chicken BBQ of the big-grovery-store-bought kind, which I did [...]
A quick thought today: Zora, through the miracle of Hulu, enjoyed her first ever viewing of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. I never noticed before: when Charlie Brown is about to give up on his Christmas tree, he hears Linus reciting the Luke 2 Christmas story again. And this causes him to give the tree [...]
I found out I was pregnant with Zora during Advent. It immediately changed how I felt about waiting. I’ve since seen churches that actually use an ultrasound photo as a symbol of advent waiting. It’s a great image to wait with…for many of us, that time of waiting while pregnant was one of the most [...]
Erik and I are grammar nerds. (However, I would appreciate it if you didn’t take this opportunity to critique my grammar because I am not having a very good day.) Which explains why we were reduced to giggles the other night for a good 10 minutes over the phrase “metaphorically speaking”. It seems to us [...]
“O Lord GOD, cease, I beg you! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” 6The LORD relented concerning this; “This also shall not be,” said the Lord GOD. Amos 7:5-6 Sometimes I feel this way about the church. Don’t get me wrong: I love the church…so much so that I’ve attached my career to [...]